Box Takes A Second Stab At IPO, This Time With Lower Expectations

After delaying its initial public offering by nearly a year, enterprise cloud-storage startup Box restarted the process Friday, saying it plans to price its stock between $11 and $13 in an effort to raise $186.9 million.

The Los Altos, Calif., startup refiled its prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission, saying it will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "BOX" and that it could sell as many as 14.4 million shares. Box's current IPO price values the company at about $1.4 billion.

"We’re incredibly excited for the coming year and the next phase of Box’s growth," the company said in a statement, according to TechCrunch. "As always, our goal is to deliver amazing technology that transforms the way individuals and businesses work."

Originally, Box planned to go public in 2014, filing an S-1 with the SEC last March, but the company was forced to delay its IPO after Wall Street's opinion of cloud storage as a business soured. With Google, Apple, Microsoft and others now offering cloud storage for dirt-cheap, there's increased doubt that Box and rival Dropbox can grow successful businesses.

Since delaying its IPO, Box has tried to quiet its critics by going specifically after the enterprise market and working with developers to make Box compatible with existing productivity software. Box is now compatible with more than 1,300 apps, up from 1,000 a year ago. Box, which turns 10 years old in a few months, also managed to grow its user base from 25 million to 32 million and its paying enterprise customers from 34,000 to 44,000 since March.

Box's filings Friday show expectations for the company are now more conservative than they were last year when the company said it hoped to raise $250 million through an IPO. The company's latest IPO valuation is also a step down from the $2.4 billon valuation Box was given when it raised a $150 million round of funding in July.